Envoy details progress and challenges in fighting HIV and AIDS in Asia-Pacific

Prasad Rao, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region, clearly remembers the day he met an HIV-positive orphan in Thailand who was only expected to live for five years.

Fifteen years later, the picture is brighter for people with HIV, thanks to greater access to life-saving anti retroviral medicines. And he looks forward to the day when no child is born with the virus.

Mr. Rao was in New York this week to brief UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on what's being done to halt the spread of HIV and AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

He tells UN Radio's Ben Malor that while this was a "very daunting" challenge a decade ago, credit should be given to regional governments for in his words "taking the challenge seriously."